Sweeping Bill Invests More Than $1.5 Trillion to Create Jobs, $10 Billion in Child Care Facilities

Washington DC – Today, Congresswoman Katherine Clark joined with House members in passing H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act, sweeping legislation to invest more than $1.5 trillion in modern, sustainable infrastructure including $10 billion in child care facilities, the hallmark of Rep. Clark’s Child Care is Infrastructure Act introduced two weeks ago. Overall, the package will create millions of good-paying jobs, combatting the climate crisis and addressing disparities in communities across Massachusetts and the country.

“The Moving Forward Act is a vital step in our recovery and our ability to build an inclusive and sustainable economy in the aftermath of the pandemic,” said Congresswoman Clark. “I'm grateful for the support of my colleagues in passing my $10 billion child care facilities funding, that will help renovate and revitalize our essential child care sector. For too long, we’ve failed to acknowledge child care as part of our economic infrastructure when in reality, this industry supports more than $99 billion in economic activity annually. Today, we’ve taken a significant step to help child care providers and families recover and reopen but most importantly, we’ve recognized the role that providers play in supporting our nation’s overall success.”

Among the many far-reaching provisions of the Moving Forward Act: 

  • Addresses structural challenges and upgrades child care facilities by leveraging a 5-year, $10 billion federal investment to generate additional state and private investments in making sure that child care settings are safe, appropriate and able to comply with current and future public health directives.  
  • Invests in schools with the Reopen and Rebuild America’s Schools Act, which funds $130 billion in school infrastructure targeted at high-poverty schools with facilities that endanger the health and safety of students and educators. This investment will help students get back to school and create more than 2 million jobs to help workers get back to work.  
  • The INVEST in America Act, a nearly $500 billion investment to rebuild and reimagine the nation’s transportation infrastructure by fixing our crumbling roads and bridges, improving safety, reducing gridlock and putting the U.S. on a path toward zero emissions from the transportation sector by cutting carbon pollution, investing in public transit and the national rail network, building out fueling infrastructure for low- and zero-emission vehicles and deploying technology and innovative materials.  
  • Invests over $100 billion into our nation's affordable housing infrastructure to create or preserve 1.8 million affordable homes. These investments will help reduce housing inequality, create jobs and stimulate the broader economy, increase community and household resiliency in the face of natural disasters, improve hazardous living conditions and increase the environmental sustainability of our housing stock.
  • Protects access to safe drinking water by investing over $25 billion in the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and other programs to ensure all communities have clean drinking water and to help remove dangerous contaminants like PFAS from local water systems. 
  • Modernizes our energy infrastructure for a clean energy future by investing more than $70 billion to transform our electric grid to accommodate more renewable energy, expand renewable energy, strengthen existing infrastructure, help develop an electric vehicle charging network and support energy efficiency, weatherization and Smart Communities infrastructure.
  • Delivers affordable high-speed broadband Internet access to all parts of the country by investing $100 billion to promote competition for broadband internet infrastructure in unserved and underserved communities, prioritizing those with persistent poverty.  Gets children connected to remote learning, closes broadband adoption and digital skills gaps and enhances payment support for low-income households and the recently unemployed. 
  • Modernizes the nation’s health care infrastructure by investing $30 billion to upgrade hospitals to increase capacity and strengthen care, help community health centers respond to COVID-19 and future public health emergencies, improve clinical laboratory infrastructure, support the Indian Health Service‘s infrastructure and increase capacity for community-based care.   
  • Modernizes and strengthens the United States Postal Service by investing $25 billion to modernize postal infrastructure and operations, including a zero emissions postal vehicle fleet, processing equipment and other goods. 
  • Promotes new renewable energy infrastructure by incentivizing the development of wind and solar on public lands and building a workforce for offshore wind. 
  • Promotes investments in our communities by spurring private investment through the tax code, through a revitalized Build America Bonds program, expansions of Private Activity Bonds and significant enhancements to the New Markets Tax Credit and the Rehabilitation Tax Credit.

A fact sheet on the Moving Forward Act is available here.